This invention relates to a jumper rack system for keeping track of jumpers used by a railroad which employs at least one signalman whose job it is to check the control signals on the tracks and at the railroad crossings to make sure that they are correctly operating so that these control signals can warn of trains either crossing roads or thoroughfares or being on particular tracks.
Many vehicle/train collisions which occur at the railroad crossings were as a result of the crossing signals not working properly such that these vehicles were driven in the path of the trains crossing the roads, and many train/train collisions which occur on the same tracks were as a result of the track signals not working properly such that both trains not knowing of the other one collided head on into each other, and it has been shown that many of these collisions could have been prevented because the signalman checking the control signals on the tracks and at the crossings with a set of jumpers failed to remove the jumpers after finishing with the checks which resulted in the control signals not being in proper operating conditions.
Signalmen are issued jumpers of which they use to do their jobs to make sure that the signals are working by simulating trains either crossing the roads or being on particular tracks which are protected with control signals. When the signalman is finished with one's test, the signalman is suppose to make sure that the control signals are put back into a ready state. Sometimes the signalman has failed to put the control signals back into a ready state which has had serious consequences. When the signalman has finished his test at one site, he may move onto another site to conduct similar tests there. If the signalman is leaving the finished test site, he may get into one's vehicle without remembering whether or not he properly removed the jumpers from the simulation and simply drive off leaving the control signals in a non-working and dangerous condition because the control signals won't indicate that a train is either on a particular track or crossing a road. To prevent potential dangerous consequences, some sort of check device or system is needed to provide substantial assurance that the signalman remembers to remove the jumpers before leaving the signal site, and that he/she can do by keeping track of all his jumpers. Applicant wasn't able to locate any prior art which would provide such a fail-safe check system.